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I generally don’t read modern biographies, but then I’ve written a short autobiography, titled Why Is God Always Late? (You may see more of it here.) This review book, with author Nabeel Qureshi, titled Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, is recently written with Lee Strobel, the former atheist, writing the foreword, and Ravi Zacharias, former agnostic, Josh McDowell and others adding their comments on the back cover. I came across it by “accident”; and since I’m interested in Islam, especially those who convert to Christ, it caught my attention. It is a page turner, and I completed it in several sittings. The provocative title tells the story: a man grows up in Islam, and he really wants to know God, which he assumes is Allah. He seeks Allah vigorously, and continues in college a fellow student challenges him.

For once, Qureshi has found someone he cannot easily destroy in a debate of Islam vs. Christianity. David, his friend’s name, has actually studied Christianity on a formal level in college and is quite intelligent about the faith. He can answer Qureshi’s questions with accuracy and detail, and they become best friends.

I will not spoil it for you, but you will ache with Qureshi as he has to tell his parents of his conversion and of all the things he studied that led him to a complete paradigm shift. The book is very informative regarding the issues between Christians and Muslims such as the Holy Trinity, deity of Christ, His death on the Cross (Islam says He did not die on the cross but escaped), bodily resurrection, the inaccuracy of the Quran versus the Bible, true life of Mohamed, and other matters. Is it true that Muslims are commanded to kill Christians and Jews? You will learn a lot without technical detail.

I was glad to see Qureshi confirm virtually all the issues I’ve raised that challenge Islam. In this blog, I challenged that there is little love with Allah since he is only one person, but with the Holy Trinity each Person has an object to love; indeed, two objects. Moreover, I wrote at another time that for Allah to forgive without atonement is injustice to the highest degree, and Qureshi begins his book with that comment. When I wrote that, a Muslim wrote to my column challenging it, and I responded that to forgive without justice is injustice. In Christ’s death, we have both justice and injustice coming together at the cross (Romans 3:26). He did not respond again.

Some years back I watched a sci-fi movie where earth was invaded by a fleet of alien ships from outer space. Nothing any country on earth did militarily made any difference; the aliens were too much for us. Finally, the US President asked by a radio device what the aliens wanted; surely, we could get together and meet their needs without all the bloodshed. (The old liberal solution for everything: talk it to death.) The response was one sentence and ominous: “We want you dead.”

Likewise, our President and other left wing liberals, along with most conservatives, do not understand ISIS or Al Qaeda, or other super-committed Muslims. Since the West does not think in terms of a holy war, they assume the East does not as well. If we could just reason with them to see what they want, maybe we could give it to them. But ISIS and other Muslims are engaged in a very offensive religious war (as if there were any other kind), and nothing will satisfy them except our death. They think their god wants us infidels converted or dead, and there are no other options. I’ve even read recently where they say we must have Sharia Law or no other law, for there are no other options. We Christians should be saying something similar: either God’s Ten Commandments or no other law, for there are no other options.

Every once in a while I think I’ve heard the ultimate in liberal ignorance and arrogance, until this morning (26 Feb 2015). Marie Harf, Deputy State Department Spokeswoman, said something like this:

“What makes a 17 year old pick up an AK-47 instead of starting a business? We need to get to the root of the problem. We (USA) need to help Muslim young men find jobs, help them improve their government, . . .”

In other words, the lack of money is the root of all evil, contrary to St. Paul who said who said “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). And then we see the arrogance of so many people in the USA: We can improve their government—but who will improve ours!

We in the USA do not have a commitment to anything to the death, but we want convenience, peace, prosperity, sex, drugs, and other idols. We panic when any of these gods is missing. It does not compute that someone could actually believe in Allah and the Koran and be willing, indeed, excited, to die for their false god and idols. We would not even die for our little children, and we murder them by the millions in abortion mills when they interfere with our lives. We want war at a distance, through drones, bombs, but no boots on the ground (I’m not arguing for that), because our commitment is so minimal.

We can see how minimal our commitment is when an American is beheaded and Obama, the leader of our country, says a few nice words, and then plays golf. Some were incensed at his cavalier attitude, but then what do we want to give up? Definitely not TV.

Am I saying that if we engage in military action things will get better here in America? No, I’m not saying use or not use military force, but I’m screaming that we need genuine Christians to pray and worship, witness to others, and understand that we’re engaged in a holy war, with the Church versus Islam. Consider how many Christians have been martyred recently by ISIS, heads cut off, and crucified. Bill O’Reilly was incensed that they murdered them simply because they were Christians, which means Bill does not understand the nature of the war. It is Satan against Christ, Satan’s minions against the disciples of the Great King. Bill thinks the war is only unrighteous humans (ISIS) against the righteous Americans. Why would any civilized people decapitate Americans, decapitate Christians, burn their own religious Muslims at the stake, crucify women and children? “There is no logic to this,” Bill maintains.

But Bill, they interpret the Koran literally, and they think they are pleasing Allah in doing so. I’m not saying they are right, but how many Christians take the Triune God and the Bible that seriously? It has often been said that one is not prepared to live until he is prepared to die. ISIS followers are prepared to die for a false god and heinous theological error; why can’t we Christians die for the true and living God and His infallible written word, the Holy Scriptures? In our hypocrisy, we get on our high horse about those savages who murder innocent people, especially those who behead Christians (and we should), but in our hypocrisy we overlook or justify the millions of babies we chop to pieces and throw in the garbage cans, and call that “pro-choice.”

This holy war is not being fought with the proper weapons:

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 7 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s (2 Cor. 10:4-7).

Let us not forget the battle is not to the strong humans and not to those who have much military might, but it is to the Sovereign King of Kings who can wipe us out in a moment or give us a revival that has never been seen on planet earth:

15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha” (2 Kings 6:15-18).

We are not having Elisha’s result because we are not walking humbly with our God. This ideological battle cannot be won by the secularists because they deny it, because they don’t understand it, and because they hate the Triune God.

So why does ISIS not stop? Why are they so committed to our destruction? Why do they sacrifice themselves in death for their cause? It is not money, women, or murder that drives them, but it is pleasing to Allah, they think.

Why is it that they are willing to die—all of them—including those in Iran? What logic is there in total self-destruction, like lemmings over the cliff? Are they mad? Young people join them to have a cause, to have fellow believers committed to something because toys, drugs, and sex do not satisfy. That is all the West and the Church of the West has to offer them. People will die for a cause if they think it is right. They have a sense of mission, of doing something to help the world.

And there is another matter that drives them immeasurably: their view of end times, what we call eschatology. They believe that according to the way they interpret the Koran, what they call literal (!), demands that they give themselves for Allah and his cause. They think the anti-Messiah (we say antichrist) is due to come to earth to stop all the ways, and that is coming is real soon. And guess who will lead the armies of heaven to set up a kingdom and rule it? Jesus, yes, you heard me correctly, Jesus! Of course, it is not the Jesus of the Bible who is creator and equal with God the Father, savior of the world! Rather, he is under Mohammed, of course.

Their eschatology drives them, and even if they sacrifice their whole countries and all the people in them, they do it for Allah! Talk about commitment. . . That level of commitment is what the West does not understand, and they think that end time talk is just plain weird.

But consider that these radical Muslims have an eschatology of victory, and they are willing to sacrifice everything, to “pledge to each other [their] Lives, [their] fortunes and [their] sacred Honor.” If you think you’re going to win in the last inning, and you are playing in the eighth inning, nothing matters but winning and going all out for Allah. That is why if (when) Iran obtains nuclear weapons, they will use them, for their eschatology demands it. It does not matter that they will be annihilated also, for Jesus will come and make everything right.

But most Christians today, especially those called dispensationalists, have an eschatology of defeat, thinking that Jesus will come back in the next few years, and they are not willing to sacrifice anything. They also interpret their holy book, the Bible, literally. According to these people, we lose, so why worry about anything. They have a defeatist attitude.

But the Lord Christ has asked the Father for the kingdoms of the world, and God has granted them to Him and us; therefore, let us fight with an attitude of faith and hope and victory. Though we do not know when the Lord Jesus will return (and no one does), yet we are to engage the cultures of the world for Him. I’ve read the end of the Book, and statements about the end in the Book, and we win! Here are some of them:

8 Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.'” 10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:8-12). (Jesus has all the kingdoms of the earth now.)

And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. (Rom. 16:20) (We crush the kingdoms also, in this life, by the power of the gospel.)

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matt. 28:18-20) (Jesus rules the world and expects His followers to conquer by the Gospel.)

If He owns it all, we must take it for Him by spreading the good news. For centuries Christians have tried to evangelize Muslims, but their culture and strong stand against anything Christian has stood in the way. Now we have the opportunity to evangelize them here, on our turf, in the USA. Let us not squander it, for this is how we’ll win the war with them. We serve “The Blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” (1 Tim. 6:15-16). AMEN. ω

[My responses to the Islamic quotes below are in brackets [] and in blue.]

I read a book by Patrick Sookhdeo, a convert in his later life from Islam to Christianity, from Muhammad to Christ. The title is The Challenge of Islam to the Church and Its Mission (2009). Since it is an inside story, I found it very interesting. There is an appendix by a German convert to Islam (Dr. Murad Hofmann), titled: “Differences between the Muslim and the Christian Concept of Love,” written in September 2007, and another appendix by the Barnabas Fund, “The Concept of Love in Islam,” which appears to be a Christian organization. As a side matter, the Islam scholar is ignorant to what the Church teaches about the Triune God and what our sources are. He quotes the Book of Mormon several times as if it were Christian. That is incredible ignorance; for no one in recognized any branch of the Christian Church thinks Mormonism and the Book of Mormon are Christian.

What the Islamic scholar said about love in the Koran:

“Allah interacts with His creation in a loving manner and commands the love and affection of all true believers” (p. 146). [How can Allah interact with his creation if he is a monad, only having one person. Love requires at least one other person as the object in order to have love manifested. Love directed toward creation but not toward another person is bazaar, at the least. How can a person [Allah] be fulfilled by things {creation]. But if Allah was always just one person, or not really even a person at all as many of their scholars say, how could he ever have loved anything? Above all, love is relational, between beings, and beings of the same peer. (See below where the Son of God is our peer as man and the Father’s peer as God.) Moreover, if Muslims say that when Allah created, he now can exercise love, we have a god who was made complete by his own creation. By contrast, in the Holy Trinity we have three equal persons, each one having the divine essence in its fullness, and each one loving the other two infinitely. Likewise, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit love their creatures because they first loved one another. So Christians can love this one God in three persons because He FIRST love us (1 John 4:19).]

Regarding Allah, Hofmann says: “Nevertheless, He remains unfathomable, unimaginable, unseizable, incomprehensible, indescribable. . . . we must not coin any similitudes for God” (p. 150). “Therefore, we can legitimately go about defining God in negative terms only, listing what cannot be said of Him. . . .” Yet Muslims are “expected to love Allah more than anything else.” [Muslims are stuck having to “define” their god only in negative terms because he/it is allegedly too mysterious, to vague, too high for humans to know him/it. Yet they are to love this unknown and unknowable God. For instance, they can say that he/it is not bound to his word since he/it is sovereign, but they cannot say for sure that he/it is love.]

“As much as the Christian faith, Islam teaches that the love of God must translate into compassion for man. However, Muslims are a bit more hesitant when it goes to use the word “love.” In general they prefer to designate the same attitude as brother—and sisterhood” (p. 151). “Statements on brotherhood in the Qur’an most explicitly refer to relations between Muslims.” [In other words, there is no statement in the Qur’an to love our neighbor as ourselves. Moreover, we can see why because their god does not love unless loved first. Moreover, Muslims treat their woman badly: if their god does not forgive people in love, and whose word can change at a whim, is it any wonder that Muslim men treat their wives so badly. Indeed, being able to have four wives cheapens their value, and being able to divorce them by saying “I divorce you three times” in the presence of qualified witnesses (four adult males), is whimsical. We can see that Mohammed was the product of his time with polygamy being practiced and coming over into Islam.]

“The idea that God might “love” what He created is not self evident. On the contrary, one might argue that love establishes a longing and dependency between the lover and loved one that is irreconcilable with God” (p. 152). [Now we can see the Islamic sense of love: dependency, rather than mutual self-giving. One can love without dependency by giving oneself to another without asking anything in return.]

“Given the dual nature of Jesus [He does not understand Christianity, for we do not teach that Christ had a single dual nature, for that would be impossible for one nature to be both infinite and finite, but we teach that after the incarnation the Son had two distinct natures joined in the one person of the Son of God.] in the eyes of Christians, his love for mankind may be understood more easily by them as corresponding to the human sentiment which all men and women experience” (p. 152). Hofmann says of the love between us and Jesus that it is a “startling intimacy . . . that for Muslims borders on, or crosses over into, blasphemy.” [I’m not sure what Hofmann means by “intimacy” but surely we Christians enjoy a personal relationship with the Father through the Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit that cannot be had anywhere else. The Son added a sinless human nature to Himself. He has always been one person, and that did not change at His incarnation, but now He is also has two natures: one divine that He has always had and the other human. Islam says Allah is too distant and too unlike us to know us on a personal level, but we know the infinite Father through the limited human nature of the Son and the infinite nature of Son. We go to our heavenly Father through the humanity of the Son who as one person is also “connected” with the Father through His deity. Thus, we have a personal relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all by the merits of the Son who died on the cross for our sins. Of course, He died in His humanity, not in His deity.]

Yet Hofmann maintains that when the Qur’an says that Allah loves, it must mean that Allah “approves” someone, for love involves commitment and is subject to change that cannot be true of one who is immutable. Then Hofmann documents from many passages from the Qur’an that Allah does NOT love unbelievers or transgressors (p. 153). [That is contra the Bible that says: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And very telling, Hofmann says that Allah will love us if we first love him, the very opposite of 1 John 4:19 in the Bible where we read: “We love Him BECAUSE He first loved us.” In the Gospel, the Triune God is the One who initiates love and we sinners respond in kind. Then Hofmann gives away the Islamic view of love.] After quoting some verses from the Qur’an about Allah loving people and creation, he says: “Admittedly, these quotations could be seen as proof for a love of God for His creation comparable to the love human beings are capable of. But this interpretation must be ruled out as incompatible with the very nature of God as sublime and totally self-sufficient.” Then Hofmann admits: “. . . the concept of loving one’s enemy is nowhere to be found in Islamic doctrine” (p. 154). [He then admits that it is constitutionally impossible for humans to love their enemies. That is why ISIS and al queda hate us so much and want to murder us—their god is like that.]

The Barnabas Fund’s says of their book: “The Qur’an never states that God is love” (p. 158). It is insightful when the Fund proclaims that Allah’s love is from his will (he rewards those who act upright) but not from his nature, revealing that Allah’s does not have love as part of his attributes. [Is there any wonder that al qaeda and ISIS hate those they attack and seek to murder them with bombs, suicide bombers, decapitation, raping women, killing children, etc. They have become like the god they worship, full of anger, hate, and demands for submission, etc.] The Qur’an is clear: “He loves not those who reject faith” (Q 30:45). Again, God’s love for the Muslim who follows Muhammad “is a reward rather than a relationship” (p. 159). [In Islam Allah reveals himself through his law, his commands, which call for submission and obedience. By contrast, in Christianity we have a personal relationship with the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who loved us so much that He sent His divine Son to live and die for our sins. A god who is always shouting commands and demanding obedience, and will throw you in hell if you don’t please him, makes for a people who are the same. So save yourself by obedience to God’s law is the Galatian heresy that the Apostle Paul confronted in Galatians.]

Again, the Barnabas Fund proclaims: “in Islam God reveals himself mainly through his law (shari‘a) which calls for submission and obedience. While in Christianity God is personal and establishes personal relationships of love with humans, in classical Islam god is seen as totally self-contained and beyond personal relationships. In Islam, although Allah loves certain Muslim people of whom he approves, he is not bound to love them even if they deserve his love. Ultimately God is not obliged to do anything, but acts as he wills, sometimes in an entirely capricious manner” contrary to what he says will happen (p. 160). “The role of humans is to submit, fear, and obey God and his law” (p. 160).

Regarding amputation, stoning, and flogging as required by shari’a law, the leader of the Islamic Center of South Plains in Lubbock, TX, claimed that “harshness was part of shari‘a and any attempt at softening it was giving in to Western Christian concepts which were incompatible with Islam.” The Islamic leader stated that “personalized faith, like that of Christians, leads to corruption and immorality. He preferred the detachment and severity of Islam, citing the Qur‘anic verse: “And let not pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day.” [The Barnabas Fund explains: “In this view, harshness rather than love and mercy are at the heart of Islam. The inference is that Christianity is weak and contemptible because it has love and mercy at its core” (pp. 160-161).]

[Let us Christians know and revel in the grace of the Triune God revealed to us in the Incarnation, and that the persons of the Holy Trinity are one in being and essence, sharing the very same divine nature, yet they desire to have a relationship with us sinners, which can be done through the One who is both God (the Father’s peer) and man (our peer). Therefore, we know how to love one another because we have learned it from the God we worship with each Person of the Holy Trinity loving the other persons, but there is no instance where one Person is said to love Himself. There is no self-love by the Members of the Holy Trinity, as there has to be in Allah with only one person, but each person of the Holy Trinity loves the other two and seeks to exalt them. (Read John 14, 16.)]

These two religions are remarkably similar, and both are Christian heresies. It appears that Satan saw that Islam worked so well in the East with Mohammed in the seventh century that he cloned the same approach in the USA with Joseph Smith in the 18th century who founded the Mormons.

The following article was written by Brother Andrew, and can be accessed at this site:

The followers of Muhammad and Joseph Smith both killed innocent “infidels” on the same date of 9/11. On September 11, 1857, Mormon militia massacred about 140 men, women and children under the authority of Brigham Young. However, 17 very young children were spared and adopted into Mormon families. They were sold to the highest Mormon family bidder and resold and traded many times afterwards. This event is called “The Mountain Meadows Massacre.” Mormon leaders engaged in a deliberate rewriting of history to deny they were behind the murders. On September 11, 2001 Muhammad’s followers, using the Koran as a guide, sent two airplanes into the World Trade Center killing 3,000 innocent men, women and children. Muslims today have a Ph.D. rewriting history and preach in the mosques that Jews were actually driving the planes, not Muslim terrorists. (Incredibly, many Muslims today deny the Jewish Holocaust, which shows how subjective Muslims are in their approach to history. Since they are repeating the Holocaust, they don’t want to be identified with it so they deny it ever happened.)

Both were allegedly visited by an angel. Joseph Smith was visited by the angel “Moroni” and Muhammad by Gabriel. Galatians 1:6-9 says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”

Each has a holy city: Mormons have Salt Lake City and Muslims have Mecca. Both are copying the Judeo-Christian religion with its Jerusalem, though now for Christians Jerusalem is not the holy city, though it was in the past. We now have the New Jerusalem, which is figurative for the Church. (Hebrews 12:22; Gal. 4:25-26; Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10)

Both were allegedly given visions, and in both cases we must believe the word of one man, unlike the Bible that has hundreds of witnesses over centuries of time in various geographical locations.

Both were told that no true religion existed on the earth. In the published account of his life, Joseph Smith related that he became very disturbed when he was a youth because of the “strife among the different denominations,” and this “cry and tumult” led him to ask God “which of all the sects were right — and which I should join.” He was told that he must “join none of them, for they were all wrong . . . that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt. . . .” (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:8-19) N. J. Dawood says that Mohammed was also concerned with the fact that the Jews and Christians had “divided themselves into schismatic sects.” In the scriptures given by Mohammed, we read: “Yet the Sects are divided concerning Jesus. . . . Truly, the unbelievers are in the grossest error.” (The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood, Surah 19, p. 34) In Surah 30, page 190, this warning appears: “Do not split up your religion into sects, each exulting in its own beliefs.” In Surah 3, page 398, we read: “The only true faith in Allah’s sight is Islam. Those to whom the Scriptures [i.e., Jews and Christians] were given disagreed among themselves through jealousy only after knowledge had been given them.” (But which sect of Islam is correct, Sunnis, ISIS, Shiites?)

Immediately after the death of Muhammad and Smith, a fight broke out among the “faithful converts” as to who would succeed Muhammad and Smith. Both groups were plunged into irreparable division that has endured ever since. Islam and Mormonism both have squabbles among themselves as to who is the one true splinter group of their prophet! As soon as each leader died, the movement split. The true lineage of Joseph Smith went to Independence, MO, but Brigham Young took most of the Mormons to Salt Lake City, UT. When Mohammed died, the movement split into two major groups, the Sunnis and the Shiites, with many smaller groups now existing.

Both Muslims and Mormons were to restore the long lost faith as the one true religion. Islam makes the claim that Adam and Abraham were Muslims, a claim that is as ridiculous as it is undocumented from either history or archaeology. Mormons make the unsubstantiated claim that the church in the first century was Mormon.

Both wrote a book that claims to be inspired by God.

Both claimed to be illiterate or uneducated and used this as proof the book was inspired. “How could an illiterate man write the Koran or the Book of Mormon?” Joseph Smith is claimed to have had only a third grade education.

Both claimed the Bible was lost, altered, corrupted and unreliable.

Both claimed their holy book was the most correct and perfect book on earth.

Both claimed that their new “Bible” was based upon a record stored in heaven. With Islam, it is the “mother book” that resides in heaven with God. With Mormonism, it is the golden Nephi plates that the angel Moroni took back to heaven.

Both claim that the versions they have in our hands today are identical to what the prophet revealed and that parts are not lost, altered, and corrupted. The Mormon claim is proven false by a book called 3913 Changes to Book of Mormon by Sandra Tanner. The Islamic claim is proven false by a book (In Arabic language) called, Making Easy the Readings of What Has Been Sent Down by Muhammad Fahd Khaaruun. Both books show that the copy of the book of Mormon and the Koran used today are different from what was originally used when each religion was started.

Both claimed to be the ultimate prophet of God.

Both claimed they were persecuted because of their pure faith.

Both were polygamists who had many wives.

Both borrowed from paganism/polytheism. Muhammad incorporated the polytheistic moon god called “Allah” and “Allah’s three daughters” into Islam. Basically Muhammad chose Allah from within 350 known gods that were worshipped in Arabia and proclaimed the moon god to be the greatest and only God. Smith borrowed from a doctrine called “pyramidology” and the Masons and other magic systems.

Both received “after the fact corrective revelations” from God. Muhammad retracted the Satanic verses and Mormons retracted Smith’s divine order mandating polygamy.

“As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi . . . which said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me, notwithstanding my utmost exertions to recover it again — and being commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words, that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I should bring forth the same words again, or, in other words, if I should translate the same over, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work: but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing: therefore thou shalt translate from the plates of Nephi, until ye come to that which ye have translated . . . I will shew unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil.” (Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, Preface)

19. Mormons, contrary to the Bible, “baptize the dead,” which is alluded to in 1 Corinthians 15:29, but says nothing about what it means or even that it is required. But Mormons have developed a whole theology on this one verse, and so they gather genealogies of all men who live on earth. This contradicts the Bible: “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless” (Titus 3:9). While the Bible says avoid focusing on genealogies, the Mormon church makes it their central focus of mission. Mormons have even been criticized for baptizing, by proxy, the Jews who had died in Nazi Holocaust camps. When lists of genealogies are collected, living Mormons are baptized on behalf of those on the lists, who have already died. In this way, Mormons view every man who lived, as being Mormons. In the same way Muslims claim that all men are born Muslims and when they learn the truth of Christianity, they are apostatizing from their first faith. Muslims re-write history by proclaiming Jesus and the Apostles were Muslims in a similar way that Mormons are baptized by proxy for dead Jews (for example) with the expectation they will be Mormons in the next life. Yet gathering of large genealogical lists no more makes dead people Mormons in the next life, than re-writing history makes Jesus into a Muslim.

20. Both the Islam and Mormon religions have those who follow the “original doctrine” of the founding leaders and like these founding leaders, are violent, polygamists, and have revelations from God justifying their evil actions.

21. Both Muslims and Mormons (and Jehovah’s Witnesses) have progressive revelation. JW’s call it “new light.” Muslims call it “Nasikh.” Jehovah’s Witnesses were once instructed to celebrate Christmas, birthdays and salute the flag, but “new light” changed all that. Mormons, like all Muslims, were originally polygamists until “The Manifesto” against polygamy came as a revelation to John Taylor, over 40 years after Smith’s death, on the eve of the US government outlawing the practice of polygamy. New revelation always replaces older revelation that became inconvenient to the prophet.

22. Both require faith in a prophet outside the Bible to go to heaven. The Mormons require faith in Joseph Smith and the Muslims faith that Mohammed was God’s final prophet.

Muslims constantly put down the Christian view of atonement, saying that their god Allah just forgives our sins without atonement, without justice being fulfilled. But if Allah forgives without justice, we have a compromised god, one that forgives based on what? The Muslim view is that forgiveness is based on human works. But how can a finite human satisfy the justice of an infinite God, and if that justice does not need satisfying, why do Muslims say that people go to hell? Is there justice after all?

Moreover, their god is not even a person in any meaningful sense so how could one be reconciled to him/it? Only persons can be reconciled. One is not reconciled to a chair or nondescript being.

One wonderful aspect of the Holy Trinity is that He is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and one Person (Son) can establish both justice and mercy for us with another Person (the Father, three persons in one being). We can (and do) have a relationship with the Father through the merits of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Since one man sinned that brought death (Adam), so one Man died to kill sin and bring us life and righteousness (Last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45, 47). Moreover, the Christian atonement is a free gift, not something we earn, if we could. Here is what the Bible says:

being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26)

Notice the highlighted words. WHOM God the Father set forth, which means a person (Son of God) was offered to a person (God the Father). Our justice and mercy is a Person, the Son of God. PROPITIATION is upholding justice, taking the punishment, which a Person (Son of God) did by voluntarily giving His life’s blood for us. DEMONSTRATE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, which refers to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, upholding the Father’s infinite righteousness by dying in our place, taking our judgment. And my favorite statement in the Bible is THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST AND THE JUSTIFIER OF THE ONE WHO HAS FAITH IN JESUS! Christians receive both justice and justification! We receive justice in Jesus, who took our judgment, and we receive justification by faith in Jesus, who imputes to us His justice or justification. At the Cross where Jesus died, mercy and justice kiss one another (Psalm 85:10). We, as sinful persons, are accepted by God through the justice/justification of Jesus, the Lamb of God!

Why do Christians offer other people and other religions peace and love while people like Al Qaeda and ISIS murder everyone? They murder other Muslims, Christians, and all religions different from their brand of Islam. And when I say murder, I mean decapitating people, crucifying Christians, raping and brutally chopping women to pieces, giving Christians one opportunity to convert to Islam or be killed, murdering children, and so on. They continually offer blood atonement to their angry god; and since it does not satisfy, they keep offering it. The only sure way for them to go to heaven is to offer to Allah their own blood in a jihad as a self-atonement while murdering a non-Muslim.

We now have thousands of them doing just that to untold thousands of Christians and other Muslims in Iraq, Syria , against the Jews in the Gaza Strip, whom they vow to “wipe [Israel] off the map,” etc. They are as evil as anyone in history, including the Romans who crucified millions, especially Christians, and the Barbarians. The only difference between them and Hitler is the degree to which they have murdered people, but they are gaining on Hitler. Their approach in kind is the same—kill all Jews and Christians–only the degree of mayhem is less, for now. Is it any wonder they deny the Holocaust: they are repeating it and don’t want the identification.

But know for sure that Muslims believe in atonement; it is just not done by their god but by themselves to a god who only knows how to give commandments, not one who knows how to love. (See my next blog on Islam and the Love of God.)

We become like what we worship, and those Muslims who worship an angry god who only gives commands, become like him/it: full of wrath, judgment, anger, death, and full of commands and demands. Here is what we read of such false religions:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Christians offer life, love, and mercy; Muslims offer death, hate, and slaughter, each according to his God. The fruit reveals the root. AMEN.